nice boy!" she
exclaimed.

But Hansel only gave her a lofty look. "I haven't seen him do anything
great," he said. "Now, if he could show us something to eat . . ."

"At least," said Grettel, "he wants to keep on going, while you're all
for turning back. I think he speaks very sensibly." And she came
forward with a pretty blush on her cheeks and took a seat demurely by
Everychild's side.

She was really startled when Hansel, in his most offensive voice,
exclaimed--"Grettel! Don't you know you're not allowed to sit on the
ground in your best dress?"

But she managed to say, with a certain amount of independence, "Oh,
Hansel--as if anything mattered now! Don't you see that if we're not
going back we'll have to make rules for ourselves from now on? I've
always wanted to do whatever I pleased in my best dress, and I'm not
going to miss the chance now!"

Hansel looked knowingly at Everychild, and jerked his head toward
Grettel. "Females!" he said. "That's why you have to sit on them.
They're like kites. Once you let them go they're over in the next
field standing on their heads."

But Everychild thought he should rather talk to Grettel. He looked at
her with a smile, and immediately she began to pluck at her skirt and
pat her hair and look at him out of a corner of her eye. He said: "It
was good of your parents, wasn't it, to put your best clothes on you
when they meant to lose you?"

She replied promptly: "I should have thought it very mean of them if
they hadn't."

Hansel seemed to agree with his sister for once; and he added to what
she had said, "And you'll notice they didn't put any bread and cheese
in the pockets, so far as anybody can find out."

But Grettel threw her hands up and permitted her head to wilt over on
one side. "There! We might just as well be going," she said. "Hansel
never has a decent word to say. When he's hungry he growls; and when
he's eaten he nods. For my part, it would be a relief to see him nod
awhile. Come, let's be getting along!"

CHAPTER V

A DASHING YOUTH IN THE FOREST

And so they set forth along the road. They had not gone far, however,
when they espied a youth crossing the road before them.

It could be seen at once that he was on a very important mission, and
Everychild said to his companions, "Perhaps we ought not to disturb
him. Let us wait, and it may be that he will cross the road and go on
his way."

But the youth did not do this. He